“Ki Yitzpeneni b’Succo” (Tehillim 27:5)

Every member of Am Yisrael merits spiritual elevation during peak times of the year. The test is whether each person then maintains this level during the rest of the year. The pasuk says “L’David Hashem ori v’yishi … ki yitzpeneni b’Succo.” Chazal explain: “Ori refers to Rosh HaShanah yishi to Yom Kippur and yitzpeneni b’Succo to Succos.” (Midrash)

Let’s examine this special division. On Rosh HaShanah the Day of Judgment a person reaches a high level of seeing the truth as it says “He will bring forth your righteousness like a light.” (Tehillim 37:6) This occurs primarily via the blowing of the shofar. As the Rambam writes the job of the shofar is to rouse those who are sleeping; the person will awaken and clearly see Hashem’s ways.

After that comes “yishi” Yom Kippur when HaKadosh Baruch Hu redeems us and forgives us our sins. Since every sin dulls a person’s heart and soul and it’s hard for a person to pull himself out of the mud in which he’s mired Hashem gave us Yom Kippur which purifies one’s soul through the kindness of Hashem….

And through this a person reaches a higher level and a path is opened for him to rise to the highest levels. (Darchei Mussar Rav Yaakov Neiman)

We’re different during Succos. Gone is the tired woman of Iyar or Tammuz; in her place is the woman with lofty aspirations who has the wail of the shofar still echoing in her heart. This woman bakes cooks hangs decorations — she’s very busy. Still deep inside she wants to stay at this elevated level to keep her resolutions from crumbling to dust as the days go by.

But to merit this there’s one more condition that must be met.

“Yitzpeneni b’Succo” is Succos when one hides himself from the yetzer hara and the physical world and secludes himself with Hashem.

Because without this he’s liable — with the mere wave of a hand — to lose everything he has just attained.

HaRav Yitzchak Blazer ztz”l said that whatever a person attains on Rosh HaShanah through his tefillos and great dveikus he can lose right after the davening while eating the tzimmes. The desires of This World are the biggest threat to a person who’s rising. One desire can make him lose the heights he’s already scaled. (ibid) 

Succos offers me a succah. Not big nothing fancy not particularly sturdy. Very temporary.

But come. Enter the succah where the holy Ushpizin visit each day anew and Hashem’s presence rests for seven whole days. Enter this modest place of planks branches a bare bulb. This place and only this place will shelter you. Here you’ll be able to remain that woman elevated from her davening .

The Mashgiach of Lomza Rav Moshe Rosenstein ztz”l said about this: There is a desert animal called a cheetah that sings a wondrous song that attracts the ear of a person and when a person draws closer to hear the voice it draws the person into its lair and then it sucks out his brain and leaves its body to die….

The same is true for This World. 

Every person has a tune that captivates her and which she cannot help but follow even if she knows the path will lead to tragedy. Every person has her particular desires that will pull her out of the world — that which causes her to lose time energy money or peace of mind. And each person makes excuses for this desire: “It’s my obsessions ” “I can’t manage without it.”

At such moments when the music pulls at me I need a succah. A simple spiritual place where I can hide each time that wave approaches and tries to suck me into the tsunami of glittering materialism. A place where I will be able to declare loudly: I will not be dragged along. True pleasure won’t come from there. The succah will enable me to withstand the inner confusion.

May we sit in the Succah of Peace under the Wing of Hashem. Always.